THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FrIDAy, FEBrUAry 6, 2026 Page 9 THE SOUNDS | FROM PAGE 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.) or threeyear-old PM (12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.) – DOB between 9/1/2022 and 8/31/2023 • four-year-old (8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.) – DOB between: 9/1/2021 and 8/31/2022 All pre-k programs run Monday through Friday. (Please note: Wednesdays are early release days.) For more information, please call Christine Moreschi at 781-231-8166. This month’s Fireside Chats at Breakheart Speakers for the Fireside Chats held on Saturdays at 10 a.m. at Breakheart Reservation in the Visitors’ Center (177 Forest St., Saugus) are as follows: Feb.7: Julie Martin, director of visitor engagement and programs, and Ryan Hutton, digital strategist. Feb. 14: Amelia Zani, State Lands Management forestry assistant. Feb. 21: Sean Riley, stewardship research biologist, and Lis Kernana, shorebird protection coordinator. Feb. 28: JP Patton, staff archeologist, and Leah Hopkins, indigenous peoples partnership coordinator. Fireside Chats require no walking, just sitting inside with a cozy fire! SOUNDS | SEE PAGE 11 NO TAX ON OVERTIME F or calendar year’s 2025 through 2028 you may be able to take a deduction of up to $12,500 of qualified overtime pay if filing single or head of household, and up to $25,000 for a married couple filing a joint income tax return. This deduction is phased out once a single person’s modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) exceeds $150,000 and once a married couple’s MAGI exceeds $300,000. This new tax provision was part of the July 4, 2025, Big Beautiful Bill enacted by Congress. The deduction is not available for a married taxpayer filing separately. Any overtime pay that is offset by this deduction is still subject to social security taxes. You also need a valid social security number issued to you prior to the due date of your 2025 1040. Just like in the case of the “no tax on tips” deduction, this is a below the line deduction on your Form 1040, meaning you deduct it against your income after you take your standard deduction or your itemized deductions, whichever is higher. this example, the deduction would be $5,000. The IRS is giving employers If you were paid $30 per hour for all of your overtime hours and your regular hourly rate was $20 per hour, the additional $10 per hour would be considered the overtime premium and would therefore be eligible for the deduction. In this example, you were paid time and a half as an overtime rate. The overtime rate is equal to fifty percent of your regular hourly rate. Typically, you would have to work more than 40 hours in the work week to qualify for overtime pay. So, if you had 500 hours of actual overtime, you would multiply 500 hours x $10 to arrive at the amount of your deduction. In until the 2026 W-2 filing season to report in a separate box on the W-2 the amount of overtime earnings. Therefore, the actual overtime pay reported on your 2026 W-2 form will form the basis of the maximum amount of overtime deduction you will be able to claim on your 2026 tax return. This deduction is claimed on the 2025 Schedule 1-A as part of your 1040. This year might be more difficult to determine your actual overtime hours worked. You might have to resort to your final paystub for calendar year 2025 to see if your employer has separated the overtime hours. You would also have to determine the overtime premium to be applied to those hours in order to calculate the deduction. Joseph D. Cataldo is an estate planning/elder law attorney, Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a masters degree in taxation. Savvy Senior What You Should Know by Jim Miller About Prepaid Funeral Plans Dear Savvy Senior, I have been thinking about planning my funeral in advance so my kids won’t have to later but would like to inquire about prepaying. Is it a good idea to prepay for a funeral that you might not need for a while? Aging Annie Dear Annie, Planning your funeral in advance is definitely a smart move. Not only does it give you time to make a thoughtful decision on the type of service you want, it also allows you to shop around to find a good funeral provider, and it will spare your adult children the burden of making these decisions at an emotional time. But preplanning a funeral doesn’t mean you have to prepay too. In fact, the Funeral Consumer Alliance, a national nonprofit funeral consumer protection organization, doesn’t recommend it unless you need to spend down your financial resources so you can qualify for Medicaid. Here’s what you should know. Preneed Arrangements Most funeral homes today offer what is known as “preneed plans” which allow you to prearrange for the type of funeral services you want and prepay with a lump sum or through installments. The funeral home either puts your money in a trust fund with the payout triggered by your death or buys an insurance policy naming itself as the beneficiary. If you’re interested in this route, make sure you’re being guaranteed the services you specify at the contracted price. Some contracts call for additional payments for final expense funding, which means that if the funeral home’s charges increase between the time you sign up and the time you sign off, somebody will have to pay the difference. Here are some additional questions you should ask before committing: Can you cancel the contract and get a full refund if you change your mind? Will your money earn interest? If so, how much? Who gets it? If there is an insurance policy involved, is there a waiting period before it takes effect? How long? Are the prices locked in or will an additional payment be required at the time of death? Are you protected if the funeral home goes out of business or if it’s bought out by another company? What happens if you move? Can the plan be transferred to another funeral home in a different state? If there’s money left over after your funeral, will your heirs get it, or does the home keep it? If you decide to prepay, be sure to get all the details of the agreement in writing and give copies to your family so they know what’s expected. If they aren’t aware that you’ve made plans, your wishes may not be carried out. And if they don’t know that you’ve prepaid the funeral costs, they could end up paying for the same arrangements. Other Payment Option While prepaying your funeral may seem like a convenient way to go, from a financial point of view, there are better options available. For example, if you have a life insurance policy, many policies will pay a lump sum when you die to your beneficiaries to be used for your funeral expenses. The payment is made soon after you die and doesn’t have to go through probate. Or you could set up a payableon-death (or POD) account at your bank or credit union, naming the person you want to handle your arrangements as the beneficiary. POD accounts also are called Totten Trusts. With this type of account, you maintain control of your money, so you can tap the funds in an emergency, collect the interest and change the beneficiary. When you die, your beneficiary collects the balance without the delay of probate. Send your questions or comments to questions@savvysenior.org, or to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070. Send your questions or comments to questions@savvysenior.org, or to Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.
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